My DAC Moment: 50 Years of Memories

DAC has been around for 50 years! If you've attended a bunch of these conferences, chances are something made one DAC stand out above the rest.

What made your DAC memorable?

Aart de Geus' MomentAround 1986, my team in North Carolina became part of Calma, which GE had acquired as part of a grand scheme of building a position in high tech. Unfortunately Calma was in decline and we self-tasked ourselves with trying to deliver a cool EDA product that could help bring “zing” to the company. Read More

Marc Greenberg's MomentMy 3rd DAC was in 1997 in Anaheim. We booked late and the only place to stay was the Disneyland hotel. Unknown to us, Disney were trying out the new concept of the "Character Breakfast".Read More

Ravikumar CP's MomentDAC is only a couple of years younger to me. I was a young student at USC when I had the opportunity to attend DAC in Annaheim, CA, in 1988. It was a big moment for me when my paper was accepted for presentation at DAC - the moment was even more special since it was the 25th year of DAC. Read More

Graham Bell's MomentI started with MicroSim - the PSpice company back in 1989. We were promoting SPICE on the IBM-PC when everyone else was using workstations and mini-computers. We called it shrink-wrap CAD back then.Read More

Derek Beatty's MomentThe first DAC I attended, the 25th DAC in Anaheim, was my most memorable, not simply for being first. Perhaps most notable was a total budget of $500, including my flight from Pittsburgh.Read More

Edmond Macaluso's MomentIt was DAC 1991 and I had been at Cadence for 3 years working on P&R and framework tools. I was part of a group that had been a strong proponent internally for frameworks and integrated tool environments.Read More

Gabe Moretti's Moment
I have attended DAC as a user, an exhibitor, and as a reporter for well over 35 years. My favorite moment was in 1991. I was with HDL Systems a self funded startup. I convinced my partners that we just had to have a DAC booth. But with little money we could not afford a commercial one.Read More

Dave Rich's Moment
My most memorable DAC was the 26th DAC 1989 in Las Vegas with Gateway Design Automation. I had been to a few earlier DACs: two in Miami Beach as an EDA customer, and my first year as an EDA vendor in 1988 in Anaheim.Read More

Gary Smith's MomentIt was DAC in Anaheim 2010 and after 352 days of "non-dating" Lori Kate had just admitted that she was in love with me and that we could now officially date ;-> We agreed that we wouldn't tell anyone until DAC was over just to keep in simple. Read More

David Artz's MomentI've had lots of good memorable moments from DAC over the years, my first was as a grad student in 1987. A few of us VLSI focused grad students (went to college in S. Florida @ FAU) hopped in the engineering van and attended the Miami Beach DAC that year.Read More

Dan Ganousis' Moment
DAC, Las Vegas, 1996. I was the VP Marketing at VeriBest and thought we had everything covered. On the morning of the first day of exhibits, our booth operations manager decided to go for a jog to offset the misery of standing in one place for 9 hours that was to follow. Well, just a reminder - it's the desert in June - and even at 7am it's HOT and the humidity is like .1%.Read More

Kathy Herring Hayashi 's Moment
So many fond memories from DAC. One of my first DAC moments, fresh out of college, was sitting in on a session about women in engineering which really resonated with me. When asked to do a trip report, that's ALL I wrote about - and I wrote pages! When I turned in my report, my boss politely asked if there was anything ELSE I attended that week? note: I now write trip reports that include the rest of the sessions, but I'm still very active in STEM and Women in Engineering events today.Read MoreTom Anderson's Moment
My DAC Moment occurred in Las Vegas in 1996. I had attended the eight previous years as a CAD manager and, therefore, as a customer. In late 1995 I joined IP pioneer Virtual Chips as VP of Engineering, so 1996 was my first DAC as an exhibitor. I found it to be an entirely different experience, with some amazing customer discussions interleaved with quiet periods standing in the booth trying not to fall asleep on my feet.Read More

Wally Rhines' MomentMy most memorable DAC was one I didn’t attend --- 1982 in Las Vegas. In March of 1982, TI Semiconductor Group was totally reorganized. After running TI’s Microprocessor Division for years, I now had the additional responsibility of managing the Design Automation Division (DAD), a bureaucratic central support organization that I had been doing battle with for a long time, trying to secure permission to allow designers to use commercial EDA tools instead of the mandated TI DAD-developed tools.Read More

Jim Hogan's MomentIts day 2 at the Dallas DAC. I'm working for Cadence and we have booked about 80 demos a day. John Gianni of Skill fame, is doing demos for the Virtuoso environment and DB integration. It's 6:30 in the morning and Gianni goes out of the hotel for a run. He trips on curb at the valet station and breaks both his femurs.Read More

Zhuo Li's Moment
My DAC experience started from 2003, when my first DAC paper, nlogn buffering insertion, was accepted. I was very excited and since I got "free travel" (thank for my advisor, Dr. Weiping Shi), I planned a big road trip with two of my best friends.Read More

Nanette Collins' Moment
I can think of several DAC moments from the many DACs I’ve attended, but the 43rd DAC held in San Francisco in 2006 after its 11-year absence holds special, unforgettable moments. First, the wonderful Ellen Sentovich was the chair...Read More

Mahdi Nikdast's Moment
Unfortunately, I am not old enough to experience 50 years of the amazing DAC. I just know about it for the last 4 years, when I published my first paper in DAC. It was my first year of Ph.D. and I was so happy...Read MoreDyson Wilkes' Moment
My moment was when I presented my first peer-reviewed paper at DAC 1999 although what I remember most vividly from that conference was being caught one evening in a torrential rain storm...Read More

Jude Angelo Ambrose's Moment
DAC 2006 was my first ever conference I attended and presented. It was the first time I did a research presentation infront of a huge number of audience, which I will never forget in my life...Read More

Frank Schirrmeister's Moment
I had attended DAC before as a user running teams for multimedia IP development back in Germany – we called them “Design Objects” at the time to mimic a software development feeling of re-use, but my favorite DAC moment came as a vendor at DAC 2003 in Anaheim...Read More

John Berrie's Moment
I was Session Chair of "3D IC and Package Design Issues" in 2007. Being a veteran of many DACs, I regarded this duty as an honor...Read More

Kathryn Kranen’s Moment
My favorite DAC memory: Las Vegas in 1996. I was working for Quickturn at the time, and my now-husband Kevin worked for Synopsys. On the Wednesday morning of DAC, Kevin "popped the question", and I eagerly accepted his proposal...Read More

Patrick Groeneveld's Moment
I started working towards a PhD in design automation after doing a class based on Carver Mead & Lynn Conway’s landmark book on VLSI. The colorful mask patterns and the magical combination of physical and logical design were irresistibly attractive...Read More

Steve Trimberger's Moment
It was in the early 80s, I was giving my first DAC presentation. DAC was much more relaxed in the early 80's, before there was an EDA industry, and the session was running late...Read More

Peter Marwedel's Moment
My first DAC was in 1979. I was a young European post-doc, who had never been to the US before. All DC-10s had been grounded due to engine problems and I had to fly a 707. The conference was held at San Diego. Before the conference started I stayed in a cheap hotel in the down-town area...Read More

Anne Cirkel's Moment
I have been involved with DAC for many years as a vendor and I have certainly had my fair share of DAC moments good and bad (and no, they weren't all at the Denali party!). However, I have to admit that my true DAC moment came when I joined the volunteer community supporting the conference...Read More

Naehyuck Chang's Moment
The first Design Automation Conference I attended was DAC 2000 held in Los Angeles. During DAC 2000, I presented my first DAC paper on cycle-accurate energy measurement of ARM7 microprocessor...Read More

Paul Mclellan's Moment
My own DAC moment has to be my first DAC (I’ve been to every one since) in Albuquerque. This was when DAC was focused on EDA only, and I realized EDA was going to be a sizable industry. In 1983 Albuquerque was still a small town and it had been selected when DAC was just an academic conference without a tradeshow...Read More